Australian women’s soccer team featuring trans players makes grand final after ‘scoring 65 goals and conceding just four’ in undefeated season

Australia’s most controversial football team have reached the Grand Final after going unbeaten all season.

Sydney’s Flying Bats FC made global headlines earlier this year after it was revealed that five players on the team’s women’s national team were male.

The team’s participation in the women’s competition led to complaints from club officials and parents, while celebrities such as JK Rowling and Lucy Zelic also criticised their participation.

And now it can be revealed that the team have had an unbeaten season, winning all 16 of their games, scoring 65 goals and conceding just four.

2GB’s Ben Fordham also revealed that six of the team’s wins came as a result of the other team surrendering, including the two semi-finals that led to a place in the final.

Earlier this year it was reported that sports governing bodies had informed clubs they would be punished if they forfeited their matches against the Bats.

“Remember, it’s a women’s league with five male players, and there are people who say, ‘It doesn’t matter,’ really?” he said on Thursday morning’s broadcast.

Zelic, an outspoken critic of the team, responded to their successful season, calling it a “crime against women.”

“I think it’s a real crime against women here… it’s absolutely outrageous,” she said.

“The fact that these women are losing their voice in this case and that, if they do have a voice, they are being punished for it, is something that needs to be investigated very thoroughly.

‘Imagine if you had to do that? To get to the knockout stages of the competition… it takes real courage in this situation to stand up and say “no, we’re not going to play”. Both Putney Rangers and Macquarie Dragons deserve credit for that.’

Zelic then reprimanded the governing bodies for what she called a dereliction of duty.

“The people I am calling to account here, and who I find most villainous, are the national sports organisations. They are the ones who still have not put in place policies to protect women and girls. They are the real culprits and responsible for allowing this circus to continue,” she added.

“These are the people we really need to bring out here and ask for answers. I want to know, ‘Why don’t these women’s voices matter?’ It’s just not right.”

On the Flying Bats official website they claim to be ‘the largest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world’.

Club president Jennifer Peden told Daily Mail Australia in April: ‘As a club, Flying Bats FC stands strongly for inclusion and prides itself on safe, respectful and fair play, the promotion of a supportive community for LGBTQIA+ players, officials and supporters, and the significant physical, social and mental health benefits that participation in sport brings, particularly to marginalised members of the LGBTQIA+ community. We are a club that values ​​our cisgender and transgender players equally.

‘We strongly support the Australian Human Rights Commission’s guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse people in sport.

Lucy Zelic called the team’s successful season a ‘crime against women’

‘These guidelines, together with the Sex Discrimination Act, form the basis for the gender inclusion policies of Football Australia, Football NSW and the North West Sydney Football Association at the local, grassroots level where we play.

‘Trans women belong in the women’s league because that is the gender they identify with. Trans women have been playing at the club for at least 20 years, at levels ranging from beginner to advanced, just like our cis women.

‘Our players are assessed on their ability and placed in the team that best suits their skills and experience.’

The Facebook group LGBTI Rights Australia posted a message congratulating the team shortly after they won the Beryl Ackroyd Cup, and also sent congratulatory messages to critics of the team.

“Transgenders have been proud members of the bats for 20 YEARS, but it took until this week for terf N@zi$ to take notice,” the post read.

‘This underlines that this is not about transgender athletes, but about the exploitation of sport for political gain.

‘Congratulations to Flying Bats Soccer Club who recently won the Beryl Ackroyd Cup! (And for all the complaining transphobes: we suggest you train a little harder.)’